Taking Cover
by Eleneri
Summary: Fifth in the Rose Shepard Series: During the search for Saren and Matriarch Benezia, Shepard and her team land on the ruined world of Therum to look for Dr. Liara T'soni. Things, predictably, do not go precisely as expected.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: **Mass Effect and all its characters, plotlines, etc., belongs to Bioware and some really good writers who are hopefully a helluva lot richer than I am for this awesome material. No infringement is intended or implied by this respectful work of fanfiction.

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**TAKING COVER**

As a planet, Therum was the absolute opposite of the ideal galactic vacation spot. It was a hellhole of open lava pools, blasted landscape, and geth.

They'd known about the miserable landscape as soon as the Mako had finished her usual controlled plummet to Therum's surface. They'd found out about the geth about fifteen minutes into navigating the rocky switchbacks that served as Therum's roadways. They'd finessed their way around the first strongpoint, surgically removing defensive positions with the Mako's long-reaching guns. But they'd been forced to disembark in order to open the gates to let the Mako through, and the arrival of geth reinforcements had pinned Shepard's team in less than optimal cover positions.

"Need a better vantage," the commander shouted, her strong voice ringing clear above the gunfire and small explosions. "Moving left to find a spot. Williams, cover me!"

"Roger that!" Ashley fired a grenade over her barricade and popped her head up, her Avenger assault rifle chattering in short, sustained bursts at the squad of geth they'd been engaging.

Pistol in one hand, rifle slung over her shoulder, Shepard sprinted from her position toward a stack of supply crates that would let her triangulate fire on the enemy. A geth armature chose that moment to stomp into range; tracer fire stitched low across the dusty, debris-strewn ground and took a chunk out of Shepard's leg armor. She staggered and went to one knee, right smack out in the open.

Kaidan's alarm made his biotics flare blue in a ripple across his skin. "Commander! You're hit!" Firing on the advancing geth with one hand, he twisted eezo energy with the other, forming it into an eerie, pale bubble around Shepard.

"I noticed." The commander gritted her teeth. "There are too many. Fall back to the Mako! I'll cover you!"

"Not leaving without you, ma'am!" Ashley levelled a withering stream of firepower at the advancing geth armature, slowing its march toward them. Bullets and sparks pinged off its hull plating, but _slowed_ didn't mean _stopped_. She was forced to duck back behind her boulder as the armature concentrated fire on her position.

"I said fall back!" Still kneeling, Shepard yanked her sniper rifle off her shoulder, sighted and squeezed off a shot. One of the armature's supporting legs exploded, sending it down to the ground at an awkard angle.

And then an incoming missile from the squad that had arrived with the armature streaked in low and took the commander clean off her feet.

"Shepard!" Kaidan was in motion even before she hit the ground with a bone-jarring thud, a long, black-armored streak of determination and biotics. Blue luminscence haloed around him in a destructive corona and flared along his arms as he snapped out a warp. The mass effect field slammed into the armature, dark energy shredding it enough for a sustained burst of fire from Ashley to take it down. A second blast of blue screamed across the battlefield and took a geth footsoldier out of the fight.

"I'll cover. Get the commander!" Grim, Ashley stepped out of cover, tossed a grenade into an advancing knot of geth that turned at least one of them into outright shrapnel and maimed a few more.

Kaidan hauled ass to where his commanding officer lay sprawled and silent in the dirt. He skidded to a halt, dropped to one knee, hauled Shepard up and over his shoulder, and shot to his feet in one coordinated rush. "Got her."

"Get into the Mako. We're gonna get overwhelmed if we don't move. " Ashley fell into guard position, still firing.

Kaidan bolted for the Mako, slammed the door open, and slung the commander inside. "She's in! Get in here!" He fired over Ashley's head as she fell back to their position, pistol warming in his hands as he fired and vented heat in a practiced rhythm. How the hell many of these things were there? Well, a few less, now.

"Coming!" Ash tossed her final grenade and they dove inside the armored vehicle almost in concert, Kaidan slapping the door sealed as soon as they cleared the threshold.

"Head for the far gate." Shepard's already alto voice was lower than normal and gritty with pain. She was trying to drag herself upright with one hand on the gunnery chair support. Her free hand still held her pistol.

"Commander, with respect, are you nuts?" Kaidan supported Ashley as she headed for the cockpit while the Mako rocked from the impact of small arms fire. He went to his knees beside Shepard as soon as Ash was clear, digging for the medkit with his free hand.

"You want to have to punch through these defenses again? We've almost got them, and we're almost at the mining camp." Shepard groaned as she levered herself upright. There was blood on her mouth - from a smashed lip when she'd caught the rocket's impact or internal injuries, Kaidan didn't know.

His hands didn't shake as he ripped open the medkit, and he kept his voice low and firm. "Commander, you need to stay still. You got hit pretty bad."

"Armor stopped some of it. Slap some medigel on what's left." She coughed, spat out dirt and blood. "We need to get through this chokepoint and take the geth out while we do. Alenko, get me to the firing controls. Williams, you're driving."

"Aye-aye, ma'am." Ashley slid into the driver's seat and gunned the engine. The Mako lurched forward with all its considerable power and Kaidan found himself sliding across the floor, trying to brace Shepard so she wouldn't slam against anything. He wasn't sure if it was determination or sheer luck that helped him get her into the gunner's chair, but she got there.

"You drive worse than me, Williams," she grunted.

Ashley kept her eyes on the viewscreen. "Learned from the best, ma'am."

"We've got incoming!" Kaidan warned, powering up the Mako's guns.

"Not for long." Ashley brutally rammed the armored vehicle's nose into a geth that was on foot, and Shepard focused fire on the turret to the right of the Mako's position. "Straggler down!"

"Turret..." Snarling, Shepard triggered a rocket launch at the stubborn emplacement. "Turret down. Anything else pinging?"

"No, ma'am."

"OK, Chief. Find us someplace safe for a few minutes."

"Roger that, ma'am."


	2. Chapter 2

Ashley managed to find a relatively secure position to park the Mako with enough natural cover to keep them protected on at least one side. "Best I can do, Commander. I'm not seeing anything out there. The geth must not be running patrols." She pulled off one gauntlet long enough to rub at her eyes. "Damn, I hate this planet. I think my eyeballs are dried out."

Kaidan chuckled quietly and opened up the Mako's medical kit. "Yeah, but it's a dry heat."

The look Ashley shot over her shoulder was not a nice one. "Permission to shoot you, LT?"

"Denied, Chief."

Shepard smiled a little as she listened to her team depressurize. It was good to hear the snark flying. There had been a moment or two when she hadn't been quite so sure she'd be able to hear it again. But as relief bled though the fading adrenaline rush, so did pain. Her thigh and hip ached like a bitch. She let her head fall back against the gunner's chair and closed her eyes. "OK, Alenko. Do your worst."

She heard the slight sound of his hardsuit creaking as he knelt at her side. "Begging pardon, Commander. The geth already did."

She didn't even bother to open her eyes. "Nah. I'm not dead."

"No, ma'am." She almost thought she could hear the smile in Alenko's husky voice. She felt his hands on her leg, unfastening the formed ceramic plating that protected the outside of her thigh. "Never heard anyone dead say half of what you did when Williams went over that last rock."

The humor helped her keep her mind off the fact that the very attractive Lieutenant Alenko had one hand essentially between her legs as he worked carefully at a fastening strap. "I ranked highest in cursing at the Academy. Just ahead of my sniper scores. And that was not a rock. That was a cliff. Maybe a small one, but it was a damn cliff."

"It was that or the lava," came the comment from the Mako's driver's seat.

Shepard snorted. "Insubordination, Williams. Don't think I'll forget it."

"Aye-aye, ma'am."

Kaidan sat back on his haunches, frowning. "Commander, I got the outer plate off and it's repairable, but I'm going to have to cut through the underarmor layer to get at those wounds. It's either that or take it off entirely. These hardsuits aren't designed with making life easy for combat medics in mind."

Shepard opened her eyes. "Relax, Alenko. I know it's a bad place to catch a slug. Isn't the first time." She angled a look over at the Mako's other occupant. "Are we still clear, Chief?"

The other woman checked the instrumentation. "So far, ma'am. Better hurry and let the LT patch you up, though. Don't know how long it'll stay that way."

Shepard unholstered her sidearm - of course she'd managed to get shot on the left side - and placed it carefully on the gunnery console. "You need me to disarm all the way, lieutenant, or just the pistol?"

"That's fine, Commander," he murmured, removing his gauntlets. "Brace your foot on my leg, please. I'm going to cut the underarmor at the hip."

"Hope you're as good at patching armor as you are at patching people." Shepard did as requested, feeling the wet trickle of blood inside her suit increase as the movement aggravated the wound, then closed her eyes and let her head fall back against her seatback. She could feel the slight tug of the scalpel against the neoprene underarmor protecting her leg. "I don't fancy the idea of charging into geth-infested ruins in compromised armor."

"I think we have spare armor in the Mako's stores. I can look, ma'am."

"Might be best. I'm not emotionally attached to my armor, just my leg."

"I can see why. Nice leg. From a medical point of view."

For the second time in five minutes, Shepard's eyes popped open. "Was that actual impropriety, Lieutenant Alenko?"

He was smiling quietly, but he wasn't looking at her. Those intelligent brown eyes were firmly fixed on her wounded leg. "Yes, ma'am. But I'm considering it more of a medical technique." She winced as he peeled the bloodsoaked neoprene underarmor layer away from her hip. "To distract you from this."

"Ow." Shepard shifted in her chair. "Well, it didn't work."

"Sorry, ma'am. I'll, ah... I'll try to work on my flirting. You know, for the next medical emergency."

There was a very brief moment when Shepard swore that the air hummed between them. Awareness and heat flashed through her before she could bank it. Damn, she wasn't sure which was more attractive, that little half-smile that was curving one corner of his mouth, or the perpetually husky voice. _He's your subordinate, Shepard. Behave your damn self. And he probably doesn't mean it, because he's a rules man even before he's a marine._ "You're going to do something else that hurts, aren't you?" she asked ruefully.

"Yes, ma'am. Try not to cry."

"N7s don't cry. We may leak medigel from our eye sockets, but we don't cry."

"Good to hear, ma'am. I'll try not to let you get to that point."

Kaidan cleaned the wound with deft hands, and examined the bullet hole marring the commander's thigh. She'd lost some muscle from the exit wound on the back of the thigh, and he treated that quickly with a thick layer of medigel, watching closely as it sealed over. The entrance wound at the front of her thigh was bleeding, but not profusely, so the bullet hadn't hit an artery, which was probably nothing short of a miracle. She'd scar, but she'd live. Carefully, he applied the medigel from a small tube in his field kit, and found himself wishing that he'd been able to keep his hardsuit gloves on. He'd been a combat medic for much of his Alliance career; he'd patched up a lot of soldiers. A lot of them had been women. This should have been routine. His hands on the commander's bare skin, though... professional detachment was suddenly a slippery thing, hard to grasp and even harder to hold onto.

Kaidan reached for his usually-reliable discipline and finished treating Shepard's wound with clinical precision. "All right, commander. Leg should be set, at least until we get back to the Normandy and let Dr. Chakwas shake her head over my battlefield patch job." He stood, activating his omnitool. "I'm going to scan your hardsuit for failures. That missile you caught took your shields out but good."

"Yeah, I remember. Sort of." Shepard flexed her leg. Kaidan did his level best to ignore the sleek muscles moving under her skin. "Feels good, lieutenant. How's the hardsuit holding up?"

_Focus, Alenko. _ He stared at his omnitool, flipping through the screens with the careless ease of a tech junkie. "HUD's got your vitals pretty reasonable for someone who took a bullet and a missile, commander, but my scan is showing a couple of cracked ribs and internal bruising. Your shields were overloaded, but they'll recharge." A frown crossed his face. "The medical nerve cluster in your suit took decent damage, ma'am. I can bypass that, but it's not a perfect fix. We'd better hope there is actually spare armor in here." His fingers flew as he input codes into his omnitool and used it to jumpstart the hardsuit's medigel delivery system. Shepard groaned quietly as the anesthetic rush hit her. The low sound went straight to his groin, and Kaidan swore silently in French.

"Hey, commander?" Ashley was rummaging in one of the Mako's storage compartments and had just pulled out a hardsuit. "I found this."

Shepard blinked. "Is that a note on that thing?"

The other woman removed the small scrap of real paper. "Shepard. Your armor is shit. What warrior wears that light crap? Try something with a little more quad. Wrex." Ashley's mouth worked soundlessly for a moment. "When did he...? How did he...?"

Shepard scrubbed a hand through her hair, dislodging a spray of dust. "He does hang out near the Mako. I'm not going to ask, Chief. I'm just going to thank him later." She started unracking her weapons loadout.

Kaidan cleared his throat. "I'll go sit in the driver's seat, ma'am. Give you some privacy. Grab an energy bar and a drink. Williams can help you with your gear switch."

The commander nodded in his direction, already beginning to work at the suit seals on her shoulder. "Sorry, lieutenant. Don't mean to make you uncomfortable."

He nodded, a hint of a blush staining his high cheekbones. "Just respecting the chain of command, ma'am."

Ashley and Shepard looked at each other as the lieutenant vanished into the Mako's forward drive compartment. There wasn't a door to close, but he did an excellent job of pretending there was an invisible one.

"Wow. LT is quite the gentleman." The gunnery chief worked the armor off Shepard's shoulders, hissing in sympathy as she saw the bruising around her ribs. "Damn, commander, that's gotta hurt."

"Medigel takes most of the sting." She sat in the gunnery chair to work off her combat boots. A flare of pain made Shepard's brisk tone sound a little more gritty than she wanted. "You were drawing a lot of fire. You okay, Williams?"

"A little banged up. More thirsty than anything else. This planet is like an oven." Ashley carefully rolled the armor all the way off the other woman's foot, leaving her standing in a sports bra and Alliance-blue running shorts. She stuffed the damaged Scorpion armor into a locker for later repair and shook out the armor their krogan companion had stashed. "Here's the new stuff, ma'am. Black and badass. Medium grade armor. Wonder where Wrex got it."

"I'd say off some merc he killed, but I don't see any bullet holes." Shepard chuckled. "I'll ask him later." Once it was all on, Shepard moved her arms experimentally. "Hmm. Moves well, all things considered. Maybe I should have tried medium armor before this." She cocked her head at Ashley. "Well, let's seal me up." She waited while the other woman went through the suit seal check, then watched the HUD for the new armor go through the startup sequence, automatically linking into the squad's existing hardsuit signals. Satisfied, Shepard started to reclip her weapons. "Grab some water and get rehydrated. We'll be moving in five. We have an asari scientist to find."

"Aye-aye, ma'am."


End file.
